Hi Madam A. D-Tor,
I've been a consultant since 1995 and can say with some experience that is hard work . . but very rewarding! Hard work because you need to get business and hard work because you need to complete work after getting the business!
You definitely need to be very disciplined because you'll be working from home or alone a lot of the time . . and long long hours too!
Make yourself a list of your skills, experience and knowledge . . then make a list of all the types/sizes of businesses that would be your client base . . this will give you some idea of the potential customer base for your services.
When I made the decision to become a consultant, I was in the same position as yourself . . a good steady job with good salary and other benefits (car, pension, expenses, etc), so as a part of my decision making I had to deal with issues like providing myself with sufficient income, providing a car, sorting out a private pension etc. I decided to save up the equivalent of 6 months worth of salary after tax to make sure I could pay the mortgage and bills for the 1st 6 months of working for myself . . and to be honest I blew through this in around 4 months! Luckily I had secured sufficient business to make sure that this wasn't a problem.
There have been periods in the last 17 years where I've not had work . . but usually only for a month or two . . I always made sure I had 3 months income saved away in case!
I have been very lucky, I got to travel all over the world as a consultant and work in various areas of public health (food safety, quality control, communicable diseases, water supply/quality, environmental protection, port health, health and safety) and I can certainly say that I have quite a few stories to tell over dinner!
So . . if you do decide to go "private", the possibilities are really only limited by your own experience and imagination . . Oh! . . and don't forget life . . life has a funny habit (or not so funny habit) of throwing you a curved ball every now and then, so you need to be flexible enough to factor these in when they do happen!
I wish you all the best in your decision making.
Regards
Gloria
Edited by gloriaeho, 30 March 2012 - 02:52 PM.